The present invention lies in the field of oxygen bottom blown steel converters, into the cooling jacket of which hydrocarbons are introduced which decompose during the blowing time with the formation of hydrogen.
While in this manner of operation, which is known as the OBM process, the hydrocarbons are fed uniformly distributed over the duration of the blowing time, it has been found that formation of CO gas commences only after a definite period of reaction and decreases towards the end of the blowing period.
The percentage of hydrogen is relatively high, particularly at the start and at the end of each blowing period proper. In FIG. 1 the variation of this percentage of gas over the blowing time is shown by way of example.
Here is where the present invention sets in. It solves the problem of providing a process and an automatic apparatus particularly suitable for carrying out thereof in order to recover the reaction gases in converters of this type, particularly as they are acquiring increasing economic importance. By recovery there is understood here in a broad sense the collecting of those gases, including their fine scrubbing and utilization.